Beacon Spotlight #5 – Comparing Keyword Klusters

We’ve touched upon almighty keywords in a couple of the first instalments of the Beacon Spotlight series. In our second post, we looked at Keyword Research and Discovery followed by Competitive Keyword Comparisons in volume three. This time around we’ve turned our focus inward to gauge, which of your keywords and/or keyword groups (which we affectionately refer to as Klusters) are the top or bottom performers in relation to one another.

Consider Klusters

We highly recommend grouping keywords into manageable, logical, topical klusters to obtain better-organized views of data in either Beacons or Reports. Klusters can be as specific or broad as you choose, but we suggest you keep the volume of keywords to a manageable size. For instance, you may want to create groups to compare one product line to another, or maybe you want to create a “focus” or “primary” group of keywords to use as a barometer for your overall online visibility. Drawing insights is much easier to do when you are dealing with 10 to 20 keywords versus 50 to 100 or more. Do yourself a favour and spend some time thinking about how you can most effectively organize your keywords. Nearly all gShift Beacons and Reports have been created to leverage klusters. Once you’ve created some, you’ll be ready to configure insightful keyword Beacons and intelligent Dashboards.

Keyword Kluster Visibility Beacon

The gShift Visibility Score is calculated by totalling weights assigned to each search position maintained for a keyword or group of keywords and then dividing the total by the highest possible score attainable (i.e. if every keyword position was maintained) resulting in an average score. This Beacon reflects the score for multiple klusters over a specified period. The score, when used to assess keyword klusters, enables users to compare the relative strengths of each group and determine which one may need attention. Further, users can click and drill down to the individual keyword components which make up each score to better understand which keywords are propping up or pulling down the score.

Keyword Kluster Positions Beacon

Data Beacon Type – Keyword

Question Answered – How are individual keywords within a chosen kluster performing over time?

A complementary Beacon to the one above and often appearing adjacent in a gShift Dashboard; the data presented here reflects the performance of each keyword within a kluster over a specified period. Again, by keeping klusters a manageable size, users can quickly visualize the keywords, which are underperforming or have seen a spike in position in either direction. Users can then also drill down to an individual keyword level to assess the full value of the keyword, which piece(s) of content are the ones ranking and/or research alternative related keywords qualified by average monthly search volume. While SEO and content marketing efforts should remain topical, this Beacon will help identify potential gaps in specific keywords which lend authority to the topic as a whole. Users may look for opportunities to incorporate these keywords into content marketing or backlinking campaigns.

If Content is King, (and we’ve yet to hear arguments to the contrary) then keywords are his lifeblood, as you can’t really have one without the other. One key to keeping the King alive and well is knowing which blood to keep pumping. The above Beacons, when properly configured and regularly consulted for insights, will provide the right formula.